How It All Goes Down
The Village of Kimov, One Hundred and Sixty Kilometers North of Moscow, Same Day
- Anatoly Brodsky is tired. He breaks into a barn and sleepily collapses onto a bale of hay.
- Meanwhile, Mikhail Zinoviev is sitting in his bedroom, watching this all go down. He creeps outside and enters the barn, picking up a pitchfork and "raising the prongs above the man's stomach" (2.4.2).
- Anatoly wakes up before that happens, however. The two men stare at each other until Mikhail drops the pitchfork, tearfully apologizing to his old war buddy for what he almost did.
- It turns out that Anatoly is on the run from the MGB. He had arrived at Mikhail's home earlier that night asking for shelter; Mikhail had refused because it would put his family at risk.
- After some more tender words, Mikhail returns to his house. His wife is not happy that he didn't finish Anatoly off.